All in an instant Betty pressed close to him, hiding her face in
his arm; she clung to him in a panic of pain and horror. She
felt something stir within her that had never been there before,
as a storm of passionate longing swept through her. Her words,
her promise to another man, became as nothing. All her pride was
forgotten. Without this man the days stretched away before her a
blank. His arm drew her closer still, until she felt her heart
throb against his.

"Do you care?" he said, and seemed to wonder that she should.

"Bruce, Bruce, I didn't know--and now-- Oh, my dear, my dear--"
He pressed his lips against the bright little head that rested in
such miserable abandon against his shoulder.

"Do you love me?" he whispered. The blood ran riot in his veins.

"Why have you stayed away--why didn't you come to me? I have
promised him--" she gasped.

"I know," he said, and shut his lips. There was another silence
while she waited for him to speak. She felt that she was at his
mercy, that whether right or wrong, as he decided so it would be.
At length he said. "I thought it wasn't fair to him, and it
seemed so hopeless after I came here. I had nothing--and a man
feels that--so I kept away." He spoke awkwardly with something
of the reserve that was habitual to him.

"If you had only come!" she moaned.